European Consumers in Fine Fettle

Retailers in the eurozone are enjoying a better time than their UK counterparts, a survey showed on Monday, ShareCast News reported. European consumers are in fine fettle, judging from the latest release of retail sales data for the region from Eurostat. Sales rose by 1.5% on the month to November in both the euroarea and the EU, Eurostat said, from a decline of 1.1% in the previous month’s reading. The acceleration–the quickest in just over a year–beat forecasts for a rise of 1.3%. Non-food products led the way, with a rise of 2.3% on the month in the euroland. Eurostat notes that Portugal’s monthly rise of almost 4% was the most rapid in the region, followed by Slovenia, Germany and Croatia. Estonia provided the only decrease, of 0.2%. The monthly rise took the year-on-year gain to 2.8%, 0.6 percentage points above forecasts.